Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Emotional Control

The common theme that seems to appear in “The Cask of Amontillado”,
“My Papa’s Waltz”, and “Cincinnati” is loving some particular thing so much can
eventually make you look like a fool. In “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar
Allan Poe, the love, and some could call it an obsession, is for Amontillado.
This love ends up having Fortunato seen as foolish because he disappears due to
the monster, presumably dead. His friend tried to stop him from going on
multiple times but he was too in love with Amontillado that he had to go find
and eventually be killed by it. In “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, the
love is for the speaker’s father for which they love to waltz with. The speaker
looks like a fool because they continuously hit their ear on their father’s
belt while dancing and they cling to his shirt even when it is time to stop
dancing, they even say at one point that they hang on like death. This is
foolish because the speaker knows that eventually the waltz will have to end
but they do not want to realize that and they just want to stay in the moment.
In “Cincinnati” by Mitsuye Yamada, the speaker of the poem loves Cincinnati,
and her chance to start a new life where no one knew her. She ends up looking
like a fool because she dropped her handkerchief on the ground. Not only did
she drop her handkerchief, she dropped her freshly bleached handkerchief into
the dirty street where people tossed their chewed gum and trash, and everyone
saw her do it.

In my meditation with Dr. Davis we discussed a similar topic
to loving something so much it makes you look like a fool. We discussed how to
keep the mind still and how keeping the mind still will help you be able to
focus better on the task you are doing and it will try to help and rid you of
obsessions. This relates very much so with the readings because every story/
poem has something to do with obsession at some point. The most obvious
obsession is in “The Cask of Amontillado” because Fortunato will not give up
until he is up against the Amontillado. In this situation, meditation would say
to quiet your mind and not to think but only count your breaths. Try to make
your body as still as possible and focus on breathing in and breathing out.
This method could have helped and maybe even saved Fortunato from his death.
All he needed to do was to try not to focus on one thing but rather focus on
everything around him and become more aware of the situation in which we was
in.

From “My Papa’s Waltz” the speaker could have used
meditation because they have a lot of energy and the goal of the father
waltzing with this child was to tire them out. The speaker, who is the child
does not get tired out by the act of waltzing it actually makes them more awake
and more aware of their surroundings, they notice everything. If the speaker
was using meditation they would not be as hyperactive and they would be able to
go to bed without having to be dragged there every night. If the child was to
meditate and have their mind be still, they would not have to cling to their
father, they would only have to realize the situation in which they are in, and
then go to sleep.

In “Cincinnati”, the speaker clearly gets overwhelmed
with their new situation and they become emotional about it. If the speaker was
to practice meditation and practice focusing on keeping the mind still, her
emotions would not have been as extreme and she would not have made a fool of
herself. By practicing breathing exercises, the speaker would have been able to
control her mind and keep her emotions from spilling out. If her emotions do
not spill out she does not have to get out a handkerchief to clean her tears
and ultimately she does not end up dropping her handkerchief, and she does not
make a fool of herself.

Overall meditation and breathing exercises that go with
meditation really help control strong emotions like love, joy, and obsession.
When these emotions get out of hand it is easy to do whatever you want and
blame the emotions. But when it comes down to it, everyone is able to control
their emotions with enough focus. It really just depends on the person and how
much they want or do not want their emotions to show.